Which French President served for the longest time?

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 1916 – 8 January 1996) was a French politician who was President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office of any French president. As leader of the Socialist Party, he was the first figure from the left elected president under the Fifth Republic.

Mitterrand was born in Jarnac, Charente, and baptized François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand, the son of Joseph Mitterrand and Yvonne Lorrain. His family was devoutly Roman Catholic and conservative. His father worked as an engineer for the Compagnie Paris Orléans railway. He had three brothers, Robert, Jacques and Philippe, and four sisters, Antoinette, Marie-Josèphe, Colette and Geneviève.

Mitterrand started political life on the Catholic nationalist right. He served under the Vichy Regime in its earlier years. Subsequently he joined the Resistance, moved to the left, and held ministerial office repeatedly under the Fourth Republic. He opposed de Gaulle's establishment of the Fifth Republic. Although at times a politically isolated figure, Mitterrand outmaneuvered rivals to become the left's standard bearer in every presidential election from 1965 to 1988, except 1969. Elected President in the May 1981 presidential election, he was re-elected in 1988 and held office until 1995.